We Stand Together
by andreri
Summary: Ex-talon!Dick. Been ripped from the circus after his family s death, Dick grew up with the Court of owls, and escaped at the age of 15, but not before they made him inmortal, now he s made a new family of his own with his three little brothers, and joined the team to give them a life away from theifting and worse, his shadowed past.
1. Sometimes water IS thicker than blood

Richard had little to no memory of his past life. He knew he was born into a circus trapezist family, and he knew he could speak Romani fluidly even before the Court´s teaching. He, however, held no memories of his lineage other than his name, and what he used to refer to as ´button memories´, than where mostly quick flashes he got from what seemed like a lifetime ago, like the way the smell of ginger reminded him of a redhead woman he just knew was his mother, or the way the phrase ´heads up´ brought the image of warm deep blue eyes very similar to his own. But mostly his memories were filled with fearsome teachers, morbid lessons and horrific acts he had committed for the Court since he was eight years old. He had been trained to be the best of the best, and at the end he was indeed the best, for he alone managed to run away.

It had been late, he was supposed to be asleep but something deep down told him not to, and he heard, he heard the conversation the Elders were having regard him, just a few meters from his coffin, they talked about his improvements, his skills and his maturity. It was decided that he had reached the top of his physical development ahead of time, and so the next time he woke up it was in an operation table, a vial attach to an empty serum bag jabbed in his arm, the day of his fifteen birthday. The Court referred to what they did to him as "drinking from the cup of immortality", to say that he wouldn´t ever grow more body hair than he had now was an understatement.

He escaped the following night, after they assigned him to kill the Mayor´s three year old daughter as a threat to his father. He couldn´t kill the child, who died anyway due to an asthma attack produced by the stress of watching his father beg for her life. The Court hunted him for a few months, sadly for them, he had been made the best of them all. They received at their headquarters seven heads of seven top members of the Court, one for each year he had lost to them, assuring more for every year they made him loose. And so they had decided he wasn´t worth the effort and left him alone as long as he didn´t intervened with their business. He had paid with blood for his freedom.

Shortly after, he had made his home of the little abandoned warehouse in the old district.

It wasn´t until a year later that his path crossed with another's person again.

He was walking home through the nicer zone of the historic center when he heard sobbing and a gentle voice trying to smooth it in a nearby alley, there in the floor were three people, the first being a redhead girl not much older than himself, hugging a raven haired child and trying desperately to look at anything but the blonde woman who laid in the dirt, obviously dead. Dick didn´t know what refrained him from continuing his way, but soon enough he found himself crouching next to the child, blocking his sight of the corpse.

"Your mother?" he asked in a raspy voice due to the lack of use.

The boy just sobbed harder.

The redhead hugged him tighter and spoke "I found him trying to wake her up. I didn't know what else to do so I called the police, the social services will…"

"Be full. And send him to Jubilee. He won´t get out." Richard cut her.

She didn´t like that "Well then, could **you** do it better?"

He seemed to think it for a moment, scanning the kid´s face for any sigh of danger, he found only a traumatized scare little boy, much like he had being before the Owls. "I´ll take him"

"What?! You can´t simply take a child like that! You need papers, and permissions, and you need…you need…" She cringed under the stare of the male, those unblinking wide deep blue eyes that were smoothing, intriguing and unnerving at same time. She didn´t know why, but she trusted him, and so she carefully handed the hiccupping kid. "Alright, you better hurry or the social services will come. I wish you luck,…." She inquired while standing up.

"Richard"

"Right. Wish you good luck Richard. Bye Jason" She kissed the kid´s forehead, and watched the man (no, now that the light was better she could see he was very young) began to make his way to the entrance of the alley before remembering

"I´m Barbara, by the way. Barbara Gordon" She smiled at him and, for the first time since he could remember his lips curved upside the tiniest of bits.

He and Jason soon became friends, he didn´t seem to mind their state of living, and he just followed Richard around like a puppy, a puppy with a colorful mouth at that. The first time he called him Dick had been when Jason was twelve, three years after they´ve met. He had found the ex-Talon´s mask and equipment and demanded to know what they were, at Richard´s refuse he began shouting about trust and secrets. The moment the D word left his mouth he had suddenly shut, a scared look on his face.

Dick. It didn´t offended him at all, if so it felt familiar, it felt right. Jason must have misinterpreted what was going through his mind for he started trying to apologize.

"I´m sorry I swear I didn´t mean it, Richard!"

"Dick"

"…Uhh?"

He shook his head at the boy´s confusion "I like Dick better than Richard"

The twelve year old grimaced "You sure about that?" at the others nod he drop the matter, not hiding his hurt expression when he looked back to the owl-like mask.

"Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time.

Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.

They watch you at your heart, they watch you in your bed.

Speak not a whispered word about them, or they´ll send the Talon for your head"

Dick then proceed to tell him everything, how the Court had kidnaped him the night his parents were murdered, how as a first test they had brought him Zucco to do whatever he wanted with him, how in the following years he had been taught to kill, to be perfect, how they had stolen his mortality, and how he had succeeded in getting the Owls out of his life.

Suddenly it all made sense to Jason. Why his friend always seemed to be on guard, his sharp movements, how his face would get inscrutable when something bothered him, the way he would get spaced out with his eyes wide and unblinking and his breath shallow, and why every night he would wake up with a jolt and accelerated respiration and hug him tight with his eyes hard shut.

They became brothers after that time, in everything but blood.

Since he couldn´t give Jason a proper education, Dick had made it his mission to teach him every bit of useful information and general knowledge he had been given by the Court, like the vast knowledge of human anatomy and the sharp extensive mathematics, or learned by other medias, like Barbara, whom they had stayed in touch with. She would invite them to the library and then to have pizza at least once a week. Her encounters will always leave a calmer, happier Dick, as Jason had noticed. Those meeting always had the purpose of learning something new from a random book at the library.

Every once in a while Dick will take Jason on a Field Trip to Gotham´s frontier forest to put in practice some of the learned and, sometimes when Jason insisted enough, to practice the physical training he had begged Dick for.

It was in one of these trips that they came across the soon-to-be addition to their makeshift family.

Dick had taken Jason camping for his thirthteen birthday. True to be told he wasn´t expecting anyone to be out there in the hot middle August, nor was he expecting an eleven-year-old to fall off a tree next to the cave they were refuging in, even least was he expecting said kid to cling to him sobbing and crying for help. Once they´ve managed to get the boy to calm down and drink some water he had explain how he had ended lost in the forest. The kid´s name was Tim Drake, he and his parents had been taking a flight in their private helicopter when something had gone wrong. The vehicle had fallen and both his parents as well as the pilot had died on the crash.

Dick remembered the kid´s name from the newspapers. The accident had occurred a week before, so the little child was report missing and only a few days later he was assumed dead. Apparently he was smart enough to stay alive.

And such, having developed a love for lost children such as himself, Dick took him with them when they got back.

It wasn´t long before Tim, being the little genius he was, found out who his new oldest brother was. He had been intrigued and, like Jason, asked for training. Dick had only agreed because he knew things were tough outside the safety nest he had made of their warehouse, and like it or not, he couldn´t be with them all times. He had omitted the lethal techniques, though, making himself the promise to always be there for them whenever the situation required such actions.

That situation came the time they found Damian.

It had been a pair of years since Tim came along, they had been walking off with Barbara after their weekly session in the library when Dick had spotted some struggle a few blokes back and, after pointing it out, the three wanna-be heroes he had with him jumped into action, putting some make-shifted clothe masks over their eyes, the oldest had no option than follow them.

Gotham was a strange place, but being honest, a dozen ninjas fitting off an eight-year-old, and loosing, seemed a bit too much.

Of course, bare-hand combat vs guys with katannas wasn´t exactly a fair fight, so soon blood was drawn. Dick only needed that one yelp of pain to push them all off the fight, barking at them to get the kid before snapping the neck of the closest ninja and using his katanna to slash and cut and impaled the others.

When he reached the alley they had taken the child to he was covered in blood, a cold look on his face that took his friends by surprise.

The boy was in a corner holding onto his own sword like a life-line, pointing it towards his saviors, he looked like he was trying stubbornly not to show how terrified he was.

Dick hold a hand up towards his companions, and the other towards the child while he approached him. The boy´s eyes grew wide and he jumped forward with the sword, the ex-assassin simply took it in his hand, the deep cut of the blade healing so quick it almost didn´t bleed, which did not help the scare kid.

"Stop." Dick said before the younger had another chance to attack. "We won´t hurt you. And guessing by the display of out there I´d say you need us"

"Tt. I don´t need you. I can do fine on my own" The boy spit the words.

"It´s that so? Because for me it looked like my brother saved your arse"

"Jason, quiet. Look, whatever the reasons, you don´t want those guys to catch you, do you?" The child shook his head "You need to get them off your back. I can help you. You may be a great fighter but, in this city, you won´t make it far by yourself. Let us help you" Dick again used The Face, with his wide unblinking eyes that seemed to tear your interior apart.

The boy hesitated.

Then lowered his sword.

Turns out the men that had attacked Damian where assassins trained by his grandfather that, after betraying him, had killed both his grandfather and his mother and tried to kill him to. He had come to Gotham hoping to find his father whom, his mother had told him, was Batman himself. Dick, Jason and Tim had helped him to get the ninjas off him by faking his murder.

And afterwards took him to their secret home, as one more brother.

And so the lone ex-Talon had become the proud and protective older brother of three children at the age of twenty one.


	2. Colder wheather, warmer hearths

It hadn´t been easy for any of the boys to adapt to Dick´s odd antics or each other, especially for Tim and Damian, who at the beginning seemed to have a disliking for one another, besides the fact that both of them had been born in golden cribs and, as such, their new style of living was strange and uncomfortable. Tim will always try to hide it when he missed his former life; while Damian will complain loudly about how much better had been his old chambers. Of course none would say word about this when Dick was around, they knew how hard their older worked to keep them all alive and healthy.

Every morning Dick would wake up before the sun was up, get to the tubes Jason had modified to make a shower, clean up, and get out before they woke up. Once on the streets the young man would get some money, that later would be used to buy food, drinkable water, personal articles, and from time to time, clothes for his ever growing little brothers. More often than not one or all of the boys would wake up before he left and demand to accompany him, and more often than not that would end with trouble.

Two years after Damian joined the log, Gotham was hit by its greatest winter in history.

Dick woke up early as ever, his nose and cheeks red from the cold; he decided to skip the freezing shower that morning. He looked down to the pile of old blankets that covered his family; they had slept all together as always, trying to keep themselves warm. Jason laid on the bottom with Tim resting his head on his chest, and Damian lying on top of them both. Dick would normally lie on top of them all to shield them from the cold.

He turned around to go, but before he reached the exit he felt a little tug on his sleeve.

"I´m going with you"

Damian. Dick loved the company of all his brothers, but with Damian he felt a connection, the kid had been trained to be the master assassin, like himself, and had escaped that destiny, like himself.

He nodded.

* * *

Bruce Wayne had heard many times the warning of his colleagues at Wayne Enterprises about a man, who could steal all you had on your wallet so fast you wouldn't even notice, but he never believed it, he thought to himself that it was an excuse for those who would simply lost four hundred dollars like they were a dime.

But he was damn sure he had gotten out of the car with five hundred and fifty dollars in cash on his wallet, and when he had brought it out to get his entrance card they were gone, and he wasn´t the type of person to simply loose so much money.

Now he was in his Batman outfit on the Batcave watching the video footage of the entrance of Wayne Tower and, effectively, there was a young man that approached him for a split of moment then walked away with a kid by his side.

If this man was stealing such big quantities of money every day then he needed to be stopped, even more if he was involving kids.

He made up his mind.

* * *

Dick didn´t like stealing, he didn´t enjoy it. He enjoyed helping people, but he had three mouths to feed and helping people had proven to be not very lucrative. He had made up a sort of code: never steal from someone who needed the money more than he, don´t steal from weak, sick, elders or children, never target the same person more than once and never threaten people for the money.

Most days he would hang out in downtown and pickpocket a few people or slip his skilled hands on stalls of the central market to get some food. Once a month he would go to the rich district, pick the wealthiest person, empty their wallet and leave as fast as possible; the little fortune gained from this would be saved for necessities or emergencies, like buying medicines.

Of course all of this methodology had little to no meaning when his brothers were close. Jason would jump fast for the easy-looking people, constantly being reminded that looks lie. Tim would go all theoretic and, more often than not, lose his chance and end up having to steal from market stalls. And Damian, well…

"Are you deaf?! I asked for your wallet!" Damian again slammed the man against the wall, the much larger man.

"Robin? Stop!" Dick hurried into the dark alley, tearing his little brother from the man "What have I told about physical aggression?"

"You fucking twerp!" the man moved to grab something at his back, a gun most probably, but before he got the chance Dick hit him hard in the neck and the brute collapsed to the ground, he hurriedly took his wallet, emptied it and took Damian´s hand and fled down the street, a dark shadow following them on the rooftops.

The boys didn´t stop until they reached the market, there Dick moved them back into a lonely corner. "What were you thinking?" He looked down to Damian´s masked face, they both were wearing makeshift clothe masks tied around their eyes, Dick´s blue and Damian´s green. "How many times will it take for you to learn? ´till you get shot?"

The ten year old had the decent to look ashamed "I don´t wish for that to happen"

"Then don´t-" A loud sneeze from the kid stopped his sentence, he sighed heavily before taking his coat off and putting it around the younger´s tiny frame " I just don't want you to get hurt"

The boy took the extra warmth gratefully, but then gave a worried frown "But Nightwing, you´ll…"

"…Be fine, remember?" Dick winked, earning a smile form his baby brother, true he had his ability to heal, but in these temperatures it would likely have stopped working hours ago, and to make things worse it was late and snow was beginning to fall heavier from the skies. "Come on, we still have to buy some food and get home."

They walked through the market, bought a few food cans and stole the occasional fruit, during the long walk to the poorest district however Dick suddenly came to a halt when a scream cut through the air, some meters ahead of them were a group of six men surrounding a woman with her daughter, the smell of alcohol evident. Instinctively Dick threw the bags he was carrying and ran towards the group, Damian following suit.

The first man was discarded by a fast hit from the ex-talon; the next closest got a round kick in the gut and stumbled to the ground in pain. Robin punched the man closer to the woman in the chin, making him hit his head against the wall behind, another man grabbed his shoulder but Damian immediately crouched and swept his feet from under him, making the man fall pathetically on his back, Nightwing followed to jag his elbow into one man´s ribcage, slamming his knee to his head when the man bent over, a smile covering the masked hero features.

A shot resounded into night, making everything else go quiet.

In a boost of fear Dick hurriedly moved to the last man, knocking the gun in his hand with a swift kick and knocking him out with a powerful punch in the throat. He lost no time and sharply made his way to Damian´s side, the kid´s eyes were wide in fear and fixed in some point of Dick´s torso. The older brother scanned him up and down, frenetically searching for injuries, only when Damian´s hand connected with Dick´s stomach did he notice the kid wasn´t the one to get shot, but himself.

Usually he wouldn´t have paid it any care, but now he could feel his heart bumping in his head as he loosed precious blood; as he had assumed the cold had inhibited his healing.

Dick fell to his knees on the snow, holding onto his little brother and panting slightly. Damian searched his surroundings desperately, the woman and child long gone, and thanking anything he could think of when he saw a familiar building "Come on, we´re close to Barbara´s place."

Batman had been about to intervene, but he had wanted to know what the now known as Nightwing would do, he really wished he hadn´t.

He stood hiding on a fire scape as he watched the kid take both of their masks off, drag the man to his feet, and hurriedly make their way into a nearby building; a trail of blood in the snow being the only probe of their heroic acts.

Maybe he had judge Nightwing wrong after all.

He unconsciously noted that they had entered Barbara´s building; maybe he could ask Batgirl later about the pair, but right now an ambulance was overdue.

Damian shifted his brother´s weight from one shoulder to another, and desperately knocked the door, for the third time. ' _I swear, Gordon, if you are not home…_ ' Suddenly the door opened and a gray haired man with glasses and a mustache came into his view.

"May I ask who are you two, gentleme-…" He trailed of as his eyes posed in Dick´s bleeding form "My God, kid. Come in" He opened the door and helped lower the wounded to a chair.

"Dad? What´s all the commotion?" a beautiful redhead entered the room, her eyes going wide as she saw the scene before her "Dick? Damian? What on earth is going on?"

"No time, Gordon, we need to call an-" He was interrupted by a siren and red and blue lights that stopped just outside the window; the four of them shared a glance.

Jim shrugged and helped Dick to his feet, beginning to make his way through the door. Before Damian could follow Barbara held him by the shoulder "You should go get Tim and Jason" She saw the boy about to protest "Unless you want to tell me where you guys live?"

* * *

Damian ran through the dark city as fast as his little legs could take him, only stopping when his body collided with his brother´s, inside the warehouse.

"Hey lil´ d. Why such a rush? Where's-"

"Grayson was shot! He´s at the hospital! " That stopped Jason from talking anything else, instead he and Tim shared a look, and without another word the three brothers took off running into the freezing night.

The small clinic was always crowded with people from the poorest parts of Gotham, especially by this time of the year where it was common to observe a raise in the accidents and not so accidentally disturbances.

Dr. Leslie Thompkins took off her bloodied latex gloves and went to the waiting room to inform the family of her patient that the surgery had been successful. "Richard Grayson´s relatives?" Soon she saw three boys, mere kids, and a girl stand up and hurry over her. "Mr. Grayson is stable now." She made a sign to follow and walked back to man´s room. "The bullet perforated a few organs, he lost a lot of blood and had a very strange case of hypothermia" She held the door open and waited till they were all in to close it. "But as soon as I began warming him up, after suturing the wound, the stiches began healing themselves closed and now…well…" Leslie stood next to Dick´s sedated form and pulled up his clinic blue shirt to let them see a fine, perfectly healed, circle shaped scar just above his belly bottom, she looked back at the group with a raised brow. "Anything you would like to share with me about Mr. Grayson?"

Nobody made a sound. The doctor left telling them to let him rest another while.

Soon Damian made his way to the side of Dick´s bed and spoke softly to the sleeping ex-talon "You said you´ll be fine. You promised" He wrapped his brother´s coat tighter around himself and then proceeded to sit down next to Jason on the old couch besides the bed.

Near ten Barbara took the boys to the small cafeteria to get some supper, around the same time an unannounced visitor entered Dick´s room. The dark figure moved closer to the bed and inspected the young man´s factions, he had heard all of Leslie´s explanation and wanted to take a better look at the scar, so he silently raised a globed hand above the man´s shirt but before he could reach for the clothing a hand grabbed is wrist in an iron grip.

"Do not, Batman" The former assassins eyes opened softly till they reached their wide form, reserved for these situations.

The Bat retracted his hand with a pull. "I don´t wish to harm you, or the children"

At this Dick´s eyes snapped "You put one single finger of yours in them and I´ll make sure Bruce Wayne´s body is found hanging from Wayne Tower, and his head send to the press wearing Batman´s cowl"

"How…?"

He smile macabrely "Beware the Court of Owls, That watches all the time, Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime, We know of your parents murdering, We know of your secret life, if you ever cross their path unwisely, that day will be your last."

It was time for Bruce´s eyes to go wide. "So it´s true. Then, I suppose, you are The Talon of the Court"

He only smirked again.

"It doesn´t matter, Richard Grayson, I know you as well. I know you are not a bad person, a thief maybe, but I saw you save that woman, and you got shot. I know you are the only thing those kids have got and I know you'll do anything for them, like steal. Then I ask you, don´t you want a better life for them?" At this the young looked a little less suspicious and a little more curious "I run a secret team of young heroes in training, all four of you will be more than welcome to join." Richard was about to protest "You will get off the streets, have a place to live, food, a proper education; only in exchange of helping people. Think about it, you were close to die tonight, what would have been of them, then?"

Dick didn´t sleep in all night. He just kept watching his makeshift family curled up close to one another in the small couch, enjoying of a warm night for a change; most probable was that the temperature kept dropping, after all there was still a long way before spring. He used that time to think about what Bruce had said, what Batman had offered; but looking back to the couch and remembering that, as rained as it was, it was better than the single mattress they had at home, there really wasn´t that much of a choice.

The next morning, after being told he could leave, he contacted Batman.

They waited for their transport outside the hospital, Dick, again with his dark blue coat over the black turtleneck sweater and blue jeans; Jason, with a red leather jacket completely zipped up and dark brown cargo pants; Tim wearing a gray thick sweater, a yellow scarf and light pants; and Damian, with a light green raincoat, black jeans and white plushy mittens. Barbara had has to go earlier because she had a test at college.

To the brothers big surprise a beautiful black limousine stopped just in front of them and opened the front window, from the inside an old man made them sings to come in and they did as told. Once they were all inside the man closed the window and turned on the engine, beginning to drive "Good morning, gentlemen, my name is Alfred Pennyworth, and I will escort you to your new lives"

"Excuse me, Mr. Pennyworth could you drive us to our home before we go there? We will like to get our things before we leave."

"With most certainty, Master Richard, but please, call me Alfred"

* * *

Alfred drove them, with their instructions, to the front of the old abandoned warehouse and waited for them to collect their belongings "Are you seeing this, Master Bruce?"

-"Yes, Alfred, and I´m glad they decided to join us"—Alfred retired his hand off the com as the boys returned carrying a single, big black bag. He opened the trunk and waited for the boys to come back inside before, with a last glance to the old building, driving away from the grim place.

Dick didn´t miss the look on his brothers´ faces. He himself couldn´t but feel emotional, after all the only good times he remembered had all happened in that old ware house, but hopefully, they wouldn´t be the last.

After some fifteen minutes or so they doubled on an alley and parked besides an out of service telephone boot. Alfred looked on the mirror at the perplex faces of the boys. "I´m afraid, young masters that this is as far as I can take you" He got out of the car and retrieved their bag from the trunk before opening their door. From the inside Dick looked at him with untrusting eyes, then ever so slowly made his way out, shortly followed by the rest. Alfred motioned towards the boot as Jason took the bag back. "Your new lives are waiting just beyond that door"

Damian responded snarky "Those better be the only thing waiting for us on the other side"

But Dick´s scolding was muffled by a robotic voice reading "Recognized B-07, B-08, B-09, B-10"

A bright light engulfed them, and they were gone.


	3. And the drama goes on

Chapter three- "And the drama goes on"

As soon as the light faded Dick noticed they weren´t on that ally any more. It seemed to be some type of cave, with high rock walls and a bright ring on the floor in the middle of the room. A base.

"Welcome to Mount Justice"

Batman´s voice reached them before his form came to view, the same light that brought them there fading behind his back. Dick had about half a second of watching his littlest brother´s face of realization before he knew what was going to happen, sadly not soon enough.

Damian ran and was in front of Batman in a flash "Hello, father" He observed the man´s unchanged face "Truth be told, I thought you´ll be taller"

-break line

As fascinating as it had been watching Damian calling for the big bad bat´s attention they had more urgent things to settle before everything was a go, and so the boy´s parenting issue had stepped (reluctantly) on second place, under the promise of further investigation. So the boys soon found themselves behind the glass of an interrogation room, on the other side sat their oldest across from Batman as the second checked the items of their shared luggage.

Most of it was clothes, which wasn't much either way. But they had packed Dick´s old Talon stuff, along with Damian´s katanna and a collection of rusty knives Jason insisted on bringing.

Batman put it all aside and stared intensely at Dick. "Why bring weapons here?"

 _And let the fun begin,_ Dick thought bitterly. "We didn´t know what will find here. We still don´t"

"We? You mean they know how to use those things?"

"They know how to protect themselves from anything" _Not true._ He would never find it in him to teach them how to be safe from the Court, _how to kill_.

"Let´s start from the beginning" Batman pressed a bottom on his glove before folding his hands in front of him. "What´s your name?"

"Richard John Grayson"

"How old are you?"

At this Dick smirked "Can´t you guest?" knowing he couldn´t "I just turned twenty three"

"Who are the boys that came with you?"

"My brothers"

"Names and ages"

"Jason Tood, seventeen. Timothy Drake, fifteen. And Damian Al'ghul, ten."

"All of them assumed dead or non-existent"

"So am I"

"How did you four come together?"

"We stumbled upon each other"

"How?"

Dick glared up at the older man "They needed help. I helped them"

Again "How?"

Dick´s face constricted into a strange grin "However necessary"

Batman changed the subject "Were you ever with the mythical criminal organization known as the Court of Owls?"

Dick´s grin fell. "Yes"

"For how long?"

"Seven years"

"Did they train you on their methods?"

Dick took a breath. "Yes"

"Did they teach how to kill?"

Another "Yes"

"Have you taken a life?"

At this he looked over the man´s shoulder were he knew his brothers will be watching. "…Yes" His voice still sounded firm.

"What made you turn on them?"

He didn't look away from the glass "The day of my fifteen birthday, the Court ordered me to be injected with their best kept secret, a chemical cocktail able to accelerate the regenerative cells of the body and stop the aging ones, used on all their soldiers. It makes you immortal" It wasn´t totally a lie.

"Are you immortal?"

Dick hung his head to the side a little "No." he waited for another question, when none came he continued "There are ways to kill a Talon." He saw the man´s mouth open and interrupted him "None of which I´m sharing now"

Bruce nodded "Are there more like you?"

He thought for a moment of the hundreds of red coffins on that old room "No." _They weren´t_ "But they are similar"

"Are they a treat?"

"Yes"

"Can we take them down?"

"No"

Batman hesitated "Can **_you_** take them down?"

He hesitated too "No"

None of them looked away from the other, but both of them wanted to.

"I know you have stolen thousands of dollars on the richest districts of Gotham, and merchandise on the poorer"

"A lot of mouths to feed"

"Why not find a job?"

"And leave them alone in Gotham? Besides, a job as what? An assassin?"

"Do you enjoy killing?"

"No"

"Just one more question"

Dick waited.

"You have helped people in the past. Why?"

Dick licked his lips "I like it."

"It almost got you killed"

"It wouldn´t… I really like it."

"Very well" Batman stood up and went to the door "You shall not kill from now on, all of you" He added as he let the boys pour into the room, eyeing Damian carefully. "You will go through a physical test so we can measure your training and skills" Faster that light he took some hairs from his supposed son´s head and put them on a Ziploc bag. "We talk about this further when I have the results" he turned to leave "Someone from the team will be here soon to show you to your rooms" He turned to look at Dick a step from the exit door "There´s no need to mention that you can do with your secret identities as you wish, but mine is off limits"

And so with a flush of his cape he was gone.

"Your daddy´s as charming as you Damian" Jason was the first to step onto reality.

Dick shook his head and began stuffing their belongings back into the bag. He had barely made it out of the interrogation room when a blur of colors sped down the hall, coming to a sudden stop in the form of a redheaded boy around his middle teens, with freckles and bright green eyes, just a shade darker than Jason´s.

"Uh…" the boy said intelligently as he looked them up and down "Hi. I´m Wally, or Kid Flash, or whatever. Oh Boy, I´m so excited to meet you guys. Batman only told us about you thirty minutes ago but we really don´t get many visits ´round here. So what are your names?"

By the end of his little speech his words were slumped together and none of the brothers had caught a glimpse of what he had said. Fortunately more steps were heard from the corner followed by a group of teenagers who all seemed to be around Wally´s age, two girls and two boys.

Unconsciously Damian used the distraction to position himself behind his oldest brother, while the other two came closer as well.

Soon enough the group of young heroes was in front of them. The older, a dark skinned male with light blonde hair approached first "Greetings my friends, and be welcome to our headquarters. I am Aqualad, or Kaldur´ahm but you may call me Kaldur" he signed towards a guy who look like a wall wearing a red s on his chest "This is Superboy"

"Conner, you can call him Conner" Said smiling a pretty redhead girl with green skin "I´m Miss Martian, but my name is M´gan M´rzz or simply Megan, and I´m so happy to have new people around"

Lastly came the girl with long blonde hair and a Vietnamese appearance "Name´s Artemis"

"Crock" Said Dick with a sudden blank voice, before realizing he had spoken out loud "I´m sorry, I mean I´m…" He turned his face towards his brothers, reassuring them "Dick, Grayson. These are my little brothers Jason, Tim and Damian" he finished resting his hand on the little kid´s shoulder.

"A pleasure" said Kaldur with a warm expression.

"Let´s show ´em the cave" Wally was too fast for anyone to warm him, so as soon as his hand touched Jason´s shoulder a loud cracking noise was heard.

_Breakline

"And lastly this would be your rooms" M´gann pointed timidly towards two pairs of open doors in front of one another in the current hallway , after having showed them every corner of the huge cave "We assumed you´d like to have separated rooms, and still be near each other"

"And a few corridors away is the exit door to the beach" Wally´s voice was muffled due to the tissue he was holding against his still healing broken nose.

"Sorry about the nose" Jason didn´t look really apologetic.

"Let's leave them alone to unpack" said Conner without releasing his frown.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour"

After M´gann´s words the brothers were finally left alone again. Without hesitation the oldest entered the first room. It was quite simple, a double bed, a night stand, a closet with a full length mirror on the door, a writing desk with a chair and a door leading to a bathroom shared with the adjacent room. All the rooms were identical, in each writing desk laid an envelope that read ' _personal items_ ´, containing three hundred dollars in cash. Dick´s envelope also contained a credit card on his name with a note that _'read clothes and more'_.

After dealing with Tim´s and Damian´s bickering about who got to use the bathroom and when, it was decided that Jason will share with Tim and Damian would go with Dick so neither of them could drown the other in the bathtub.

Once the brothers were done with putting what little clothes and personals effects they had on their respective rooms, Wally came by to inform them that dinner was served before quickly going back.

When they arrived at the dining area they couldn´t help the astonished looks on their faces, the table was flooding with food, more than ten different dishes none of which Dick remembered having tasted in his life, different types of salads and vegetables, rice, pasta, meat, chicken, hamburgers and breads that smelled wonderful.

"I hope you can find something you like, since we don´t really know your tastes in food" M´gann took seat next to Superboy and looked at them between excitement and shame.

"Tt, this will be sufficient" Damian was the first to react and take a plate, soon followed by Tim and Jason, and despite the hard words it was difficult to hide how they quickly began stuffing their mouths with everything at reach, they hadn´t eaten anything since the small meals Barbara had paid for them the night before, after all.

Artemis noted Dick standing awkwardly unmoved "What, the food not good enough for you?"

The young man eyed her before carefully sitting down in front of her, between Tim and Damian "I don´t normally eat unless it´s extremely necessary" Silence fell heavy upon them "It´s been so long I guess I´m just not used to it"

Artemis looked a little taken aback, as was the rest of the team; the younger boys looked down with guilt, food wasn´t exactly abundant back at the warehouse yet they never lacked three meals a day, but they weren´t ignorant, they knew Dick rarely ever ate to assure that there was enough food for them.

"This is delicious" Dick broke the silence smiling warmly at M´gann, who blushed a little, before taking another bite of the spiced chicken and chewing on it mindfully.

"Delicious? You mean overwhelming" said Wally serving himself another two burgers.

"More like underwhelming" snorted Damian under his breath.

"Well, don´t know about you but I´m just whelmed"

Tim stopped his fork midair to stare at his elder and was about to replicate something when he saw the little smirk the other was harboring, then Jason broke down and soon enough everyone on the table was laughing.

 _Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad after all._


	4. Old habits die hard

**_Chapter four-"Old habits die hard"_**

Dick wasn´t surprised, not because he had awaken near five in the morning nor that he had found all of his brothers curled up together in his bed. He didn´t mind, he wasn´t uncomfortable, the bed was big enough for all of them. Sadly, one of the down parts of putting food on your mouth was that it had to go out at some point, so he got up trying not to wake anyone up, he didn´t, they all were tired from the day prior. He did what he had to at the bathroom, and wondered about going back to bed, he decided instead to go try the gym they had showed them the night before.

The halls were extremely quiet, since everyone was still sleeping, besides the only ones actually living there were Conner and M´gann, Kaldur would stay just for some days then go back to Atlantis, and Artemis and Wally had gone home.

The gym was an extraordinary thing. It was a circular room with rock walls, padded floor and a high ceiling, a pair of upgraded running bands, _probably to keep up with a speedster,_ a few weightlifting machines along with huge weight wheels, a set of various bars and rings, different types of targets at the far end of the room, a wall with every kind of non-lethal weapons he had ever seen (and some he hadn´t) hanging from it, some machines he wasn´t quite sure of their purpose and, lastly, an Olympic pool that smelled suspiciously like salt water.

It had been a long while since he had stepped foot on a gym, he didn´t really know where to begin. Something deep inside of him said the rings, and he listened.

He began with some stretching and softly lifting his body just to taste how the rings felt, when he was confident his muscles wouldn´t fail he started doing more and more complicated movements, flips and stuns he didn´t remember ever learning. The air harshly brushing against his face felt familiar, like memories from a long forgotten dream. His heartbeat was racing, threatening to jump out of his chest, and so with a final strong backwards flip he let go of the bars, body instinctively turning to land him firm on his feet on the ground, Dick was only half surprised to find that his arms were also raised, like a performer saluting his audience.

A soft clapping resonated in his ears and it took him a fraction of a second to realize that it wasn´t on his head, Dick turned on his heels to see Kaldur entering the room.

"That was quite impressive, my friend" he stopped in front of the…older teen? "I´m sure your skills will be a great asset to our team"

Dick decided to ignore the last part for the moment "You always come here this early?" he inquired eyeing the towel beneath the atlantean´s arm.

"No, I usually come earlier, around six, but yesterday was tiresome" He finished with a small smile.

This took the ex-talon aback; he checked the wall clock and effectively it was eight o´clock and he had been going for close to three hours, his brothers would be flipping. "I gotta go; the boys must be awake already"

"Probably M´gann and Conner went to call them for breakfast; you could meet them in the kitchen"

Somehow he didn´t think that would have gone smoothly, so he decided it was best to go back to his room and check that nobody had died, fortunately the noise of shouting was pretty easy to follow and soon he found himself holding Jason back from attacking Superboy meanwhile Megan was trying to talk him into getting out of the room and Tim and Damian tried to no avail to fill Dick in on what had happened.

Needless to say, he would train at night from that moment on.

After the waters had settle down and Jason´s deep purple knuckle bruises were taken care of, everyone went to have breakfast, and between eggs, bacon and pancakes the silence felt heavy upon them.

"So…have you guys thought of anything you want to do today?" asked bravely the Martian.

Tim seemed to light up at this "Actually, I was wondering if there happened to be a place nearby were we could buy some stuff"

"Hello Megan!" Exclaimed the girl with a light hit to her head, which startled those new to the act. "Batman actually said something about taking you to the mall when you felt ready, I forgot to tell you yesterday"

"That´s perfect! It´s been so long since we´ve actually go to a mall" Replied Tim excitedly looking up at Dick as if asking for permission, _as if he could deny anything the younger asked for so eagerly._

So, after finishing breakfast, everyone got dressed and ready to go. Since the night prior had snowed too heavily to take the bikes, Kaldur decided to take the minivan parked next to them, Damian thought on asking why the keychain read "Red Tornado" but decided against it.

The trip by the snowy streets was spent between touring through the town, Dick and Jason´s pleas for driving lessons and Damian assuring smugly that Kaldur could use some too, thankfully they arrived before the moods could rise again.

The mall was a five story building with a lot of windows, the east side overlooking the pier and the sea and the west side next to an extensive park with lots of trees. The main entrance read in big letters "Happy Harbor Royal Mall".

Suddenly the idea that he had never been to a mall before crossed Dick´s mind and he told Tim so in a hushed tone.

"Don´t worry, just don´t touch anything with a 'no touching' sign and don´t take anything out of a store without paying and you should be alright"

There was a bit of fussing over what stores to visit first, but finally on M´gann's advice it was settle for them to head straight to the department store, which was easier said than done. Not a moment after entering the boys had diverge to different apparels on the main entrance hall, leaving a slightly panicking Dick to try and gather them together again.

By the time the made it to the department store, each of them had acquired a modern phone, several books and more than two pounds of gummy bears that they had picked up along the way. It had been a bit stressing going through a mall full of people while trying to keep an eye on three excited boys running ahead, but there was no point on trying to stay even close to each of them in that forsaken store, every time Dick thought he had one of his brothers secured they will go into a new set of mechanic stairs or disappear behind the curtains of a trier. He was about to give up and go sit at a bench when a huge pile of clothes was thrust into his arms and his brothers pushed him to try them on.

When the group finally agreed to go get lunch Dick was pretty sure his hands wouldn´t fit another bag on them. The food court was gigantic and finding a free table among the crowd was hell, and turns out ordering extra jalapeño on your tacos meant melting your mouth off, but other than that the meal was enjoyable for a place so flooded with loud people.

On the way back to the mountain, practically buried with bags, Dick found his thoughts diverting back to past years, wondering what would his old teachers say if they saw him like this, it had been a long time since he had thought of the Court but the interrogation the day before and his training that morning had freshened the haunted memories of painful discipline and bloody weapons.

"Here we are" Said M'gann merrily when the garage door shut behind them.

"You are bleeding" Dick hadn´t noticed his nails were indeed digging into his palms until Conner stated it.

Seeing his brother in a loss of words, Jason interfered "It´s nothing, he´ll be fine. See?" he took his brother´s hand and held it up for the others to see the skin closing, only remaining the angry dots of red.

"We were not informed you were metahumans" Came Kaldur´s intrigued voice while he unloaded the bags.

"Tt, _we_ are not"

"He means it´s only Dick who has enhance healing and cellular regeneration; the rest of us are pretty much normal"

"Speak for yourself, Drake. I have got the sharpest training this world could ever offer"

Despite the bitter remarks, all three of them could see Dick was grateful for the change of subject, and seeing him swallow thick and put on a forced smile it didn´t take a genius to figure out what he had been thinking about. His eyes were dark and distant once more.

_break line

Thankfully the team let them have some time alone so they could arrange all the stuff they had bought.

Dick was currently in sitting in Jason´s bed while Tim taught him the basics of a phone.

"Okay, so now that you have your email account all you need to do is log into every app you start using from now on"

"Agh! There´s no way all of this is gonna fit in here!"

"Trust me, Jason, put socks and undies in the same drawer" Tim said without looking up from his new phone.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!"

"Don´t just throw everything in there" With a sigh Tim lifted himself from the bed and went to aid his hot headed brother, leaving Dick to his technology.

All that Facebook and stuff was completely new to him, but the basics were pretty simple and soon he had found Barbara´s profile, after sending her a friend request he went through her photos, there were plenty of her with her father, some with another younger redhead whom he assumed was her brother, a bunch of pictures with different people that probably were her friends and classmates, and to his surprise there were pictures with the four of them as well, some dated from the first year they´ve met, back when they found Jason, others went along the seven years they had been friends, one of them was from the walk through Gotham Park last week. It was kinda funny that he didn´t remember her taking any of the pictures except for the only one that didn´t have Babs in it: It was taken outside Barbara´s college, it was her birthday and they had wanted to give her a nice surprise by visiting after classes but had fallen asleep sitting under a tree, since they didn´t really have money to buy her something they had spent all morning picking up flowers for her at the park and Tim had arranged them into a lovely bouquet that was firmly grasped in Dick´s hand, all four of them were cuddled together under the shade of the tree, peacefully slumbering. Dick remembered waking up while Barbara was pulling the camera out, she had bitten her lip and drawn her index to it, he had just closed his eyes again and trying to conceal the tiniest of smiles.

The legend Barbara had wrote read "Such vigilantes they turned out to be, love you boys anyway". It was a beautiful image and the memories it brought made him feel warm and safe, unlike the terrors of his time with the Owls, the thought of the redhead always brought a sort of peace to his mind and a gentle pressure to his chest.

Suddenly he realized that was the only photo with just the four of them and a feeling of nostalgia filled him, all those moments shared with the boys, watching them grow up. He was so naïve, he knew he would never age but they will, they will grow and age and become old, and one day they will …

Desperation shot through his veins and soon he found himself shouting his brothers´ names at the top of his lungs, tears biting the edges of his vision.

"Dick, what´s wrong?" Jason held onto his arms while Tim questioned him with alarmed eyes.

Damian erupted into the room "What the hell´s going on?"

Their oldest was shivering and his voice shook "The camera, we need to take some photos"

"What?"

He looked up to meet their eyes "I don´t want you to be just a memory, you´ll grow old and d…die and I will not. I don´t want to live without you. I…I can´t live without you" Dick´s eyes were wide open looking at the distance and tears felt like rivers from them, all of his body was trembling violently, and he had started hyperventilating.

A panic attack.

The younger boys looked at each other, this kind of things used to happen to Dick all the time when Jason had first come to live with him but had lessen to almost never over the years, it had only happened twice since Damian had joined them, not including this time, so it still chilled him to the bone when he saw his usually calm and collected brother like this "Shhhhh…Calm down Richard, you are not going to lose us" From what Damian understood of his brother´s physiology, that may not be true.

"Lil´d" Jason called and shook his head no. "Hey, Dick, come on look at me" He waited for the other to do so and ever so gently pushed him back until his legs were against the bed and made him sit, the other two following them up close. Movement behind him told him Superboy had heard Dick´s screaming and the team had rushed to his door but thankfully stayed there, once Dick got out of it he would be extremely ashamed as usual and they needn´t had other witnesses to this. He signed Tim go close the door and heard him exchange a quick 'he´ll be fine' with others before doing so and rushing back to the bed, meanwhile Damian had taken both of Dick´s hands in his own and held them tightly under his chin. "Hey, Dickie bird, look at me" He held his brother´s face with his thumb until their eyes met and dried his tears with the other hand "It´s okay, it´s gonna be okay. When you calm down we´ll all go and take pictures of us everywhere, like a family. You´ll like that?" he waited until the older man gave a little nod "Great, but can you do something for me? Can you breathe deep through your nose?" Jason did it as to show him how and soon the other two joined him ´till they got Dick to breathe normally again and a few moments later the conscience got back to his eyes.

Dick stared at his little brothers and released a sigh before pulling all three of them into a chocking hug. What would he do without them?


End file.
